From the outside, this modestly sized shingle-style house with ornate black trim gives away little about the drama that lies behind the arched doorway. There’s only a band of steel and glass along the ridge of the uppermost gable that speaks to the surprise that lies within.

The house was built in 1917 in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow by Elizabeth Austin, a little-known female architect. She was the classmate and contemporary of the more popular Julia Morgan in an age when female architects were a rarity.

“I look at projects like this and think about what the original architect might have done if he or she had had the technology and the mind-set that we have today,” English says. “If Elizabeth Austin had access to those things, she might well have completed the house similar to the way we did today.”